Northattan

Buffered bike lanes on First Avenue would be swapped with parking lanes and converted into fully protected curbside bike routes. Photo by Milos Balac/Northattan.

East Harlem resident Diego Gerena-Quinones stood before a packed community meeting in the Red Theater at Harlem Prep Charter School on 123rd Street one evening earlier this month.

Gerena-Quinones was giving personal testimony in favor of a controversial proposal to extend protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues, from 96th to 125th streets.

“We’ve been hearing a lot of facts and statistics, which is great, they tell a story,” he said. “I’m going to do something a little bit different. I’m going to tell a personal story.”

On Gerena-Quinones’ mind was the injury summary for First Avenue just presented by New York City Department of Transportation’s Joshua Benson. From 2006 and 2010, 579 people were injured in traffic-related accidents along the stretch of road between 96th and 125th streets alone.

“I was one of those 580-something people that was struck by a vehicle,” said Gerena-Quinones.“I think it would be great to have these protected bike lanes. I know that I personally would have benefited from it.”

His message was a powerful one. After his accident this year, in which a car struck his bike on First Avenue and sent him flying over the hood, he spent six hours in the hospital in a neck brace. Months later, he is still undergoing physical therapy for the spinal injury he suffered.

But as dramatic as his story is, it does not persuade everyone in East Harlem — particularly those who own businesses on First and Second avenues. In their view, the city Transportation Department’s bike lane plan would serve only a handful of cyclists, while increasing traffic congestion, diminishing air quality and — most important for the area’s restaurants, bodegas and other retailers — hindering deliveries to local businesses.

“We’re not prepared to sacrifice our lives for the sake of a few,” said Erik Mayor, owner of the Milkburger restaurant on Second Avenue at 106th Street. Mayor told the community meeting that converting one of the current car lanes on Second Avenue to a bike lane would drastically reduce available parking, on a street already congested with double parkers.

Community Board 11 asked the city’s Transportation Department to build protective bike lanes in East Harlem two years ago. The board, together with department, held a series of public meetings to inform local residents and businesses of their plans. But not everybody got the message.

A slew of local residents and business people have come forward claiming they were not informed of the bike lane proposals, and have accused the Transportation Department of a lack of transparency. Their disquiet led to the community board’s withdrawing support for the bike lanes at its meeting in November.

Board officials subsequently decided to bring transportation officials and locals together for an extraordinary meeting at Harlem Prep Charter School in early December.

New York City has built bike lanes on city streets  at rapid rate since 1997. Fifteen years ago, the city had just 119 miles of bike lanes, marked with paint on city roads. As of July 2009, this had grown to a 561-mile network of off-street paths, traffic-protected lanes, on-street lanes with buffer zones and shared lanes marked by chevrons.

By 2030, that network could more than triple in size, if Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan gets her way.

While early development of the bike lane network met little opposition, new expansions in East Harlem and elsewhere are encountering more resistance.

A 2010 report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Transportation,“ Cycling in New York,” states that the number of New Yorkers traveling to work by bike has more than doubled since 1990. And, in gentrifying neighborhoods such as Brooklyn, it has quadrupled. The report says this is largely a result of the city transportation department’s effort to expand and improve cycling facilities.

But while numbers of cyclists have increased, the same report says that the number biking to work is still minuscule. It put the citywide figure around 0.6 percent for 2008 — just under 25,000 cyclists. Erik Mayor contends the only cyclists he sees when he looks out the window from his Second Avenue restaurant are couriers.

At the East Harlem community meeting 13-year-long resident Pablo Guzman questioned the prioritization of bike lanes given the community’s dire need for education and health funds. Gasps rippled across the school hall when the cost of the project was revealed at $300,000 per mile — around $840,000 for the 2.8-mile East Harlem project. As 80 percent of this is federally funded, the city would foot a bill of around $168,000.

Joseph Ferris, a spokesman for the bicycle advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said that taking the federal grant into account, the real city investment in bike lanes since 2006 has been about $1.6 million, “virtual drops in the bucket” compared to spending on other transportation infrastructure.

“Traffic crashes cost New York City $4.29 billion in 2009, according to the NYC DOT’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan,” said Ferris in an email. “Bike lanes have proven to drastically reduce the number of crashes.”

Downtown from East Harlem, city figures for First Avenue between Houston and 34th Streets show a 37 percent drop in traffic accidents following the introduction of protected bike lanes. And, for the same distance on Second Avenue, a decrease of 11 percent was recorded.

According to the Transportation Department’s Pedestrian Safety Study and Action Plan, released in August 2010, traffic accidents resulting in pedestrian fatalities is one of the primary causes of death among children between 5 and 14, and among adults over 45.

Local Mount Sinai pediatrician Dr. Kevin Chatham-Stephens told the community meeting at Harlem Prep that he supported bike lanes for that very reason. In a sobering statement, the young physician said that on top of these bleak statistics, black children are 50 percent more likely to die in traffic than white children.

City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito sees the pedestrian islands built alongside bike lanes as integral part of her office’s “Aging Improvement District” plan. On wide avenues the islands provide additional rest stops for elderly citizens.

Proponents at the community meeting offered a laundry list of reasons why the bike lanes should be built, ranging from helping reduce obesity, to the possible reduction of smog and other pollution, which can contribute to asthma and other respiratory diseases.

Community Board Chairman Matthew Washington supports the bike lanes, but is growing weary of the debate. Speaking on the eve of the community meeting, he said opponents weren’t paying attention before.

“I’m just really looking forward to us as a community board getting beyond this issue so we can focus on more important issues,” he said, “like the 16 percent unemployment rate in our community or the 43,000 people on public assistance.”

Street cleaning in Washington Heights may soon be reduced from two days a week to only one, after a vote by Community Board 12 on Nov. 24. Councilmen Robert Jackson and Ydanis Rodriguez both voiced support for the board’s resolution.

St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights. Photo by Celeste Owen-Jones/Northattan.

It is the first time such a decision has been made by a community board in Manhattan. It comes after the City Council voted last April to give Community Boards with clean streets the choice to drop one day in alternate side parking in residential areas. In April, CBS quoted City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as saying,  “We’re not saying to a neighborhood you have to have less street cleaning and less alternative-side-of-the-street parking. We are saying you have that option.” And CB 12 has chosen that option.

Kathy Dawkins of the Department of Sanitation said that to be eligible, “each section of CB 12 must have a two-year street cleanliness rate of 90 percent,” which was the case for CB 12. This is measured by a scorecard from the Mayor’s Office of Operations, where inspectors rate the cleanliness of a district monthly.

The manager of Community Board 12, Ebenezer Smith, said that the board members were divided on whether to reduce street cleanings, the issue, with some even requesting “a return to street cleaning three days a week as it used to be some years ago.” But the board voted, 25-12-1, in favor of the resolution. Smith said some members argued that beyond the parking relief, it could also improve the air quality, since fewer people would be moving their cars around.

In addition to parking relief, Smith said the cleaning cutback could also save the city money. For instance, cleaning trucks will need less gasoline.

Smith himself was skeptical that the benefits would outweigh the detriments, though. He said that cutting street cleaning “might work in the area of Cabrini / 181^st Street, but might not work in other areas, like St. Nicholas and 170^th Street.” Indeed, St. Nicholas Avenue is said to be dirtier than, for instance, Broadway, due to a higher number of street vendors.

Vanessa Caballos, who lives on 173^rd Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, said that so far the streets are clean because the sanitation trucks come frequently. But she is strongly against the new resolution. “Where is the garbage going to go? There are eventually going to end up on the streets,” said Caballos. She doesn’t own a car, but said that making parking easier for residents is not a good excuse “People who own a car in the city have to expect rules and regulations to be in place,” said Caballos. “Mass transit is the way to go.”

Now that Community Board 12 has voted to reduce street cleaning by one day, the Department of Sanitation will review the mechanical broom routes in each section of District 12. Dawkins said “this process can take up 12 to 18 months.” Once all changes are approved, the Department of Transportation will have to change the alternate side parking signs. And some residents can sleep in another day.

ARC XVI senior center's members use the service to get to the center early in the morning. Photo by Isha Soni/Northattan.

“I am afraid of falling down the stairs and I haven’t used the subway for 20 years,” said 75-year-old Washington Heights resident Leonor Ramos. Another 73-year-old uptown resident, Flerida Custro, said, “MTA makes absolutely no effort to understand the needs of senior citizens.”

Understanding the concern of residents like these, the ARC XVI Fort Washington Senior Center has launched a new service called COASTS, for Coordinated Older Adult Senior Transportation Service. As the name suggests, it is what its organizers call a “door-through-door” transportation service for senior citizens, exclusive to northern Manhattan.

Diana Hernandez, the assistant executive director of the senior center, said that as people age, especially if they have disabilities, transportation becomes one of the biggest challenges. “It affects them psychologically and socially,” she said. “They become alienated, marginalized and invisible citizens and no one sees them except for doctors.”

COASTS runs between 110th Street and 220^th Street in Manhattan. Rides are free for people above the age of 60 and for disabled people over 50, but the riders must be aware of their destination and of their residential address. An aide can assist a member with a mental illness, and, Hernandez said, “If you have a mobility impairment, we have added a mobility facilitator who ensures a member’s safe transfer, door to door.”

On a recent morning, Chris Hernandez, 32, a mobility facilitator, escorted 10 elderly people from their apartment gates to a bus seat and fastened their seat belts. All through the journey, the bus driver and Hernandez chatted with the passengers and made them feel comfortable. Hernandez said she had three weeks of training to become a facilitator, where “I was trained in handling wheelchairs, dealing with senior citizens and how to help them get around.”

Mary Johnson, of Washington Heights, was one of the passengers. She said, “If I didn’t have this transportation today, I wouldn’t be able to use any other transportation and go anywhere.” Another passenger, Cenida Velasquez, said, “I use it for everything: To go to the doctor, to go shopping, to visit the center, and it is very good because the driver and the attendant make you feel like a king and take very good care of you.” Velasquez uses this service up to five times a week.

Currently, COASTS has nine buses, each of which can carry up to16 passengers. It is funded by a combination of public and private funds, including more than half a million dollars from the federal transit administration and local funds of more than $137,000 raised by the ARC XVI senior center with the help of New York City Council and the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation Inc. The senior citizen center is now preparing to apply for another grant to expand the reach of the transportation service and to buy more and larger buses.

COASTS fills a need, especially acute in northern Manhattan. There are no elevators or escalators for the A, C and 1 train subways in Inwood, and in much of northern Manhattan, hills make walking especially difficult for disabled and older people.

The MTA already supplies some services similar to COASTS, like Access-a-Ride, for people who cannot use the subways or other public transport, but people have complained that those services are not enough. Edith Prentiss, 69, a member Community Board 12’s traffic and transportation committee, says, “New York city transit does not run on schedule. Whether it is Access-a-Ride, or it is the M5, when it keeps the disabled person waiting, it’s a problem.”

For most people, traveling along the George Washington Bridge is an opportunity to see the iconic Manhattan skyline and New Jersey’s Palisades.

The view of Manhattan and the Palisades from the George Washington's Bridge south sidewalk. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

But for a few people, it is the last view they see.

The Port Authority says it does not release statistics about how many people jump from the bridge. But a Freedom of Information request revealed that through Oct. 20 of this year, 12 people leapt to their deaths from the structure.

At least one more person jumped in November, according to news reports, bringing the total to at least 13 suicides.

These figures have more than tripled in two years. Port Authority records show there were five suicides in 2009, four in 2008 and four in 2007. Last year, two people more jumped from the bridge but survived the 212-foot drop.

“Traditionally, the George Washington Bridge has not had many suicides,” said Dr. Madelyn Gould, a professor of psychiatry and public health at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The increase, she said, is “very upsetting.”

The numbers reflect only cases when officials found bodies or clear evidence left behind by a suicidal jumper, such was the case last May, when a woman abandoned her car on the upper level of the bridge. But there may be other incidents when the Hudson River quickly swallowed any traces of a body into its depths.

The rise in suicides off the George Washington Bridge coincides with an apparent rise citywide. New York City police reported a 27 percent increase of people jumping or threatening to jump off buildings or bridges in the first eight months of 2010.

The George Washington Bridge's south sidewalk is open for pedestrians and bicyclists. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

Still, Dr. Michael Grunebaum, a clinical psychiatrist who focuses on suicidal behavior, said the figures are too skeletal to ascertain a clear trend.

“If you had a graph of that number over a couple of decades, you would probably see a lot of fluctuation up and down,” said Grunebaum, who is an assistant professor at Columbia University Medical Center’s psychiatry department. “It catches your attention as possibly meaningful, but it might not be.”

Most suicides are caused by depression, mental illness or substance abuse, according to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. But Grunebaum said the recession could have played a role in this year’s increase.

“The stress and pessimism accumulates over time, and there is probably some delayed effect,” said Grunebaum.

Of the deaths covered in the news, ages ranged from 18 to 48 years old. Half of the jumpers were college students and most of them were male.

Psychiatrists say the male predominance is not surprising.

“Males tend to use more violent methods of suicide, and jumping from a bridge would qualify as a more violent method,” Grunebaum said.

The Port Authority estimates over 52 million vehicles travelled east on the George Washington Bridge in 2009. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

Jumpers are also influenced by news coverage. High profile stories, like the death of 18-year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, can have the undesired effect of romanticizing suicides. It can also popularize locations like the George Washington Bridge in the eyes of potential jumpers.

But leaping from the bridge is anything but an idyllic way to die. After stepping off the edge, a person spends approximately four seconds in the air, falling at about 75 miles an hour, before hitting the water. The body shatters upon impact; those who do not die immediately soon drown.

The Port Authority is “always looking at ways to expand its suicide prevention program,” and the discussion was “an active work in progress,” said spokeswoman Jen Friedberg. “We are working with all agencies on both sides of the river.”

Currently, signs posted along the bridge’s walkway offer help to those considering suicide.

Signs along the bridge's sidewalk offer those thinking about suicide a number to call for help. Photo by Robin Respaut/Northattan.

But the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline says signs and phones are not enough. The most effective means to reduce suicides are physical barriers.

Psychiatrist Gould published a comprehensive report about bridge suicides for Cornell University this summer and favors physical barriers.

“If these numbers continue to increase, the Port Authority has to start seriously considering barriers, because that is the only empirically based prevention strategy for jumping deaths from a bridge,” said Gould.

Her research shows that “most individuals who jump from iconic sites are ambivalent, act impulsively, choose a specific site, and if thwarted from an attempt at that site at a particular time, will survive.”

Studies also show that 94 percent of those who survive the jump never try again.

And some have publically said they immediately regretted their decision to jump. Kevin Hines jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge in 2000 and was interviewed in the 2006 documentary “The Bridge.”

“The second my hands left the bar, the railing, I said, ‘I don’t want to die,’” Hines said.

More information about suicide and suicide prevention:

Warning signs: depression; excessive sleeping, alcohol or drug use; irritability; mood changes such as withdrawal, anxiousness or general swings; or comments about suicide, death or giving up.

Help is available:

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (273-8255)

The Samaritans Suicide Prevention Hotline: (212) 673-3000

The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: 1-800-LIFENET (543-3638)